People complain about screen real estate. But the solution for netbooks and notebooks for this is using multiple virtual desktops. I mostly use my laptop for doing some script or web development while I commute or just want to play around with code at home, and I've successfully been using virtual desktops.

I'm using a MacBook Pro myself and have turned on it's Spaces function which I use very often when developing. It will easily let you switch desktops with Ctrl+Arrow. I usually set up my spaces or virtual desktops like this:

1. A browser for searching and reading references
2. My editor or IDE
3. The app or browser

If you're using Linux, there usually is a desktop switching mechanism built-in for the window manager installed. Windows does not have this built in; but there are some alternatives that can be installed such as Desktops.

I find the screen real estate to be an opportunity for me to avoid bad code such as code bloat or god classes, since navigating some bad code is a horrible experience to do in a laptop.